The Iranian navy in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday he seized an oil tanker carrying 145 thousand tons of oil: the ship is called St Nikolas, it left the Iraqi port of Basra and was supposed to arrive in Aliaga, in western Turkey, via the Suez canal. According to most observers, the Iranian navy seized the tanker in retaliation against the United States: Iranian state TV said that the tanker is the same one that was seized by the United States last year because it was transporting Iranian oil to China , in violation of the sanctions that prohibited Iran from exporting it.
Iran has claimed that the tanker is American, even though the Greek company that operates it, Empire Navigation, he said that at the moment the ship is no longer, and Associated Press writes which flies the flag of the Marshall Islands.
According to the British unit United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to ships in the Middle East, the seizure it started early in the morning in the waters between Oman and Iran, in an area passed by ships entering and leaving the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all the oil exported in the world passes. The private security company Ambrey he has declared that four or five armed people got on board and covered the surveillance cameras.
In addition to generating possible tensions between Iran and the United States, the seizure occurred at a time when global maritime trade is being disrupted by the series of attacks carried out by the Houthis, the Shiite armed group supported by Iran and which controls a large part of Yemen. , are carrying ahead of ships passing through the Red Sea.
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